Session 52: Popular Culture and Political Economy in Contemporary China

Organizer: Aili Mu, Iowa State University

Chair: Hai Ren, Bowling Green State University

Discussant: Timothy C. Cheek, University of British Columbia

Keywords: popular culture, contemporary China, market ideology, modernization.

Many recent critical studies of China’s modernization process focus upon the negative impacts of the market craze during the mid-1980s and the market extremism of the 1990s. China’s active participation in the global "system of political provisions" (Wang Hui) has brought about both a conflation of domestic capital and political power and the consequent systematic corruption and social crisis that have taken the country to "the brink of a ‘momentous era’" (Wang Xiaoming). In the same critical vein, this panel further investigates China in transition through an examination of its contemporary popular cultural products/production in diverse media (theatre, television, print literature, theme parks, etc.), especially their complex functions facilitated by the state and market mechanisms. Max Weber’s critique of the rationality of modern capitalism and Michel Foucault’s notion of the "technologies of the self" provide the theoretical perspectives for our scrutiny of the complicity between power and capital, the formation of class-consciousness, the representation of ethic culture, and the social costs of an absolute ideology. Most concerned with the political aspects of political economy in contemporary China, this panel provides concrete studies that reveal a) the affinities between the ideology of the market and the operation of the state, b) the reasons behind the disconnection between economic development and social justice, and c) the new modes of social stratification and forms of domination. In so doing, we call into question the globalization of capitalism and its perceived universal paradigms of progress and development, as well as China’s obsession with modernization.

The Secret of the New Rich in Contemporary China

Xiaoming Wang, East China Normal University

In "China on the Brink of a "Momentous Era" I explained why contemporary China confronts the crisis of life or death. Continuing the discussion, this essay presents some strategies to contest the relentless encroachment of market and capital. As much as China’s many facets perplex us and defy theorization, attention to the internal differences will lead to a fuller understanding. Of the vast disparities between regions, classes, generations, and distributions that the non-planned market has created, this essay focuses on the economic upstarts—the new rich, especially their sudden appearance with the new political order of "power plus capital" in 1990s. By uncovering who they are; how they succeed through back doors and front stages of power; what their benefits have been; and why they entertain a conservative stance and a pessimistic view of the future, this essay unlocks some of the biggest secrets of the past two decades. Among them are: the complicit relationship between the dominant ideology, state power, and the rise of the new rich; the nature of the "market economy with Chinese characteristics"; the agenda behind appealing to the desire for wealth; and the danger of exclusive focus on efficiency at the cost of spiritual freedom, civil rights, ecological balance, public ethics, and social justice. I hope this article helps awaken the public to the new types of danger, destruction and crises in today’s world where "the haves and the have-mores" are pronounced the basis of political power and keep alive the creative process of freedom and democracy.

Consuming Ethnic Culture and the Formation of the Chinese Middle Class

Hai Ren, Bowling Green State University

The proliferation of Chinese theme parks in recent years presents a good opportunity for critical reflection on the relationship between the development of culture industries and the unfolding politics of everyday life in contemporary China. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park (CECP), a theme-built environment opened in 1994 outside Beijing’s National Olympic Center to showcase ethnic minorities, this paper examines how the representation of China’s "ethnic culture" (minzu wenhua) becomes tied to the construction of Han visitors as middle class subjects. Although the tourist industry’s representation of ethnic minorities still manipulates the knowledge produced in the socialist period, it has moved away from the construction of ethnic culture as an object of reform for social progress. In the present context of capital accumulation, the consumption of ethnic-themed products (such as displays of daily objects and performances of songs and dances) links the depiction of ethnic culture to the formation of Han middle class consciousness. The presentation and experience of ethnic cultures as objects of consumption and entertainment at a theme park like the CECP not only accumulate human capital for the middle class but also develop their "proper" consumer conduct. This paper’s analysis of the consumption of ethnic culture at theme parks intends to contribute to the current scholarly discussions on new modes of social stratification in China.

Digital Army: A Necessary Invention by/for the State and Market

Aili Mu, Iowa State University

Under pressure from high-ranking commands and market demands, the Art Troupe at the Nanjing Military Command produced Digital Army, an award-winning TV drama series in 2003. The series presents an opportunity to investigate the interaction between the "technologies of domination" and the "techniques of the self" in China’s current promotion of enterprise culture. The storyline centers on the selection of the best commander for the newly-established high-tech army. Since the People’s Liberation Army is the pillar of the state apparatus, this selection process manifests both the state’s arbitrariness in articulating the real and the individuals’ unconscious conversion to the state-approved conduct. Through an analysis of the futuristic characteristics of the army elites constructed on a quasi-economic logic of competition and efficiency, my study will explore 1) the state’s strategies to link its goals with the professional development of its servicemen and the happiness of its citizens; 2) how such strategies construct both the public consensus about and the subjective resignation toward the state’s vision of progress; 3) the ways in which market principles are used to legitimize state power and rationalize military behavior. Although proleptic, the army in the series is modeled after China’s current military forces. It inadvertently points to "the non-necessity of what passes for necessary in our present." Digital Army’s diagnostic value, therefore, lies in the attention it draws to the selectivity—the social costs of such creations of the ideal—and the new ideological games in the invented world of contemporary China.